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Tag Archive: economic development

The Economic Growth Advisor (EGA) programme was introduced by the Local Government Association in 2014 to promote, facilitate and enhance the role of local authorities in delivering economic growth. Derrick Johnstone was recruited to the panel of EGAs, whose role has been to offer bespoke advice and support to individual local authorities.

Derrick advised Three Rivers District Council in Hertfordshire (see LGA case study):

providing a fresh look at the local evidence base around economic growth, contributing to an updated Economic Profile

preparing a ‘critical friend’ report to the Management Board recommending steps to sharpen the Council’s approach to economic development

identifying good practice advice on introducing a Business Charter

advising on the content and structure of a revised Economic Development Strategy.

The ‘critical friend’ role was particularly valued, highlighting how, in low cost ways, the Council can add more value in pursuit of economic growth.

The UK Commission for Employment and Skills has a priority to give employers greater responsibility and ownership in developing the skills needed for growth, not least through the BIS-funded Employer Ownership of Skills (EOS) pilot programme. This is funding innovative, collaborative, employer-led projects capable of transforming the delivery of training and making a significant economic impact.

Derrick Johnstone was recruited to the UK Commission’s network of well-connected Associates who bring specialist expertise, knowledge and skills into the organisation, to supplement and develop internal capability around the implementation of these funds. He was recognised for his specialism in ‘local and regional skills and employment interventions and economic development’.

Associate roles included:

specialist advice in the form of reports, presentations or expert papers

working with employers granted support to develop outline bids to full applications

Tasks have involved reviewing how Local Enterprise Partnerships are developing their role around skills, serving as an assessor in appraising bids under the second round of the Employer Ownership of Skills programme, and seeking early feedback on progress and learning from successful projects.

Derrick’s latest role is in support of the UKCES Futures programme. This promotes innovation in addressing current or anticipated workforce development problems that get in the way of improved business performance.

In March 2013 the Guardian’s Public Sector Network ran a live chat on plans for What Works Centres, which are being promoted by the government to improve evidence for decision-making in a number of policy fields, including Local Economic Growth. Derrick Johnstone was one of the panel members, along with Sam Markey from the Cabinet Office, Ruth Puttick from Nesta (author of ‘A NICE for Social Policy’), Jonathan Eastwood from Big Lottery Fund (co-funders of the new centre on Ageing Well), Julie Temperley from the Innovation Unit, and Phil Sooben from the ESRC (co-funders with BIS and CLG of the Local Economic Growth centre).

You can find out more about the Centres here and follow the Guardian discussion here. Some key points were pulled out by the Guardian in a round up.

Evaluation of the Business Broker Programme – final report (Brokering Business Connections) for Business in the Community (BitC) and the then Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) on the national pilot programme, testing out the role of Business Brokers supporting business involvement in Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) and neighbourhood renewal.

The evaluation has informed the development of Business Connectors, the current BitC programme described as a “powerful network of secondments recruited from business … to tackle social issues in local neighbourhood areas, and in so doing, create a powerful new development experience for talented business people”. This has been seen as a contribution to the Government’s agenda for the Big Society, with a major expansion funded by the Big Lottery Fund.

Case studies for the Partnerships and Places Library, developed by IDeA (now part of the Local Government Association) – intended to enable ‘sharing learning and innovation to transform localities’. These have included:

Dorset Performance Management Partnership

Implementing a reward target in Derby: children’s physical activity

Manchester Economic Development Services Framework

Manchester: tackling worklessness amongst social housing tenants

Enable, Nottingham (learning and skills consortium in the voluntary and community sector)

Flight of the Flamingos, Wolverhampton (partnership development programme aimed at middle managers)

Lewisham: putting people first (an effective model for driving service improvement and efficiency savings, now being used in a partnership setting, a joint local authority/NHS centre for children with learning difficulties and their families)

Salford Spotlights (locality action planning)

Hull Youth Enterprise Partnership

More recent case studies have been published on the Work Together site, which the Local Government Association trialled as a precursor to their new Knowledge Hub:

The case studies were part of our work for IDeA/Local Government Improvement and Development under a framework contract for ‘Sustainable Communities’ and ‘Policy and Performance’. The Library also contains updated versions of case studies we orginated for the predecessor site, Renewal.net – such as B&Q Bolton recruitment policies.

Five Steps to Better Outcomes ( pdf 583KB): a guide to delivery planning, assisting local partners in making a success of Local Area Agreements, working out how best to achieve community outcomes. These were produced between 2008 and 2010 for Improvement and Efficiency West Midlands.